Matt Trowbridge: Novak made NIU stand for class as much as wins

Tuesday

He lost more games than he won in his 12 seasons at Northern Illinois University. He never won a Mid-American Conference title. In his greatest season, the Huskies didn’t even go to a bowl.

Still, Novak cast an enormous shadow during his 12 seasons as NIU’s football coach, as much for who he is as for what he did.

“He’s a father figure,” NIU’s 1,000-yard rusher Justin Anderson said. “You can always tell he cares about you. If you are not going to class, he will be the first to call you, bring you in and get on you. He knows every player by their name and the high school they went to. He even knows our mother’s names without asking.

“He’s one of a kind.”

The 62-year-old Novak, who announced his retirement at a news conference Monday, became a father figure for the entire MAC after overcoming an 0-23 start to his coaching career to lead NIU to upset wins over Maryland and Alabama in 2002 and climb as high as No. 12 in the Associated Press rankings.

Novak’s final team finished 2-10, buried under a flurry of injuries and close defeats.

“That’s a hard thing to have upon our shoulders,” receiver Britt Davis said. “This was his last year and we couldn’t send him out the right way.

“Despite how the season went, the guy accomplished tremendous things. He took this program from nothing and made it into something.”

And he did it with class. The walls of NIU’s football office aren’t dominated by signs boasting of Novak’s seven consecutive winning seasons — the longest in the nation outside a BCS conference — between 2000-06. No, the most dominant artwork is a sign stating Novak’s three goals:

1) Earn an NIU degree

2) Represent NIU with class.

3) Win.

His final goal is most coaches’ first goal. If not their only goal.

Novak often came achingly close to winning big, losing a MAC title in the last 30 seconds against Akron two years ago and missing out on several other title shots with late losses to Toledo. But he did win a share of the MAC West title four times and in two other seasons reached a bowl game and won 10 a school-record 10 games.

And every NIU football senior is on track to graduate for the second consecutive year.

“It’s all about character with Coach Novak,” said Montell Clanton, a junior running back from Guilford. “He molds you into being men.”

“He’s the type of coach,” NIU president John Peters said, “that every parent dreams their son will play for.”

Peters said Novak gave NIU a national reputation for class and character of its coaches and players.

“That is the best gift anyone could give NIU,” Peters said.

“Joe Novak,” athletic director Jim Phillips said, “embodies everything that is right about college athletics.”

Novak stayed true to those ideals to the end. He didn’t want to exit on a losing season. He didn’t have to; Phillips told Novak he could stay on as coach as long as he wanted.

“I appreciate that,“ Novak said. “But that doesn’t mean I should. The kids need a new voice. They need some new energy.”

Novak, at 62, lost some passion. For the first time since this son of a Cleveland factory worker doodled plays when he should have been taking notes in junior high math class, he no longer wants to be a football coach. He wants to lay back with his wife, two sons and three grandchildren. To eat lunch at Macy‘s and enjoy Christmas in Chicago. Buy a boat. “It might be a 12-foot row boat, but I’m getting a boat,” he said.